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Canada’s Gabriela DeBues-Stafford’s comeback continues to roll on while she competes in Europe. The 1500 metre specialist suffered for at least two years with a few injuries that derailed her career. The issues had her questioning whether she would ever come back to the international level.
After training in multiple locations with various coaches, she settled in Scotland in early 2025.
Her progress
The 29-year-old won a 3000m distance event in 8:39.35, fewer than six seconds off her national record. It had been a while since she ran at this level.
Two weeks later, on the 25th of May, DeBues-Stafford won the IFAM Outdoor in Boudewijnstadion Stadium, Brussels, Belgium in 4:03.81. It wasn’t even close. So, to run alone and run just shy of the 2025 Tokyo World Athletics Championships standard was a great sign. The standard is 4:03.00.
On July 11, she raced in the Morton Games in Dublin, Ireland, at Morton Stadium, Santry, which is a World Athletics bronze-level meet. She clocked another post-injury best of 4:01.19, making the Tokyo World Athletics Championships standard.
DeBues-Stafford will also need to be top-three at the Canadian Track and Field Championships and within the top-30 of the world (limit 3 per nation).
While she is happy with the result, she noted on Instagram that she wished she dug deeper for the win:
Her current national records
- 1500m – outdoors – 3:56.12 NR – 2019
- 1500m – indoors – 4:00.80 NR – 2020
- Mile (1609m) – outdoors – 4:17.87 NR – 2019
- Mile (1609m) – indoors – 4:00.80 NR – 2020
- 3000m – indoors – 8:33.92 NR – 2022
- 5000m – indoors – 14:31.38 AR/NR – 2022
So far in 2025, the result is the 32nd fastest in the world. She has a little more work to do. The rankings for the World Championships qualification include multiple performances, head-to-head results against competitors from the same country and quality of the meets.
Currently, Grace Featherstonehaugh and Lucia Stafford (sister) rank ahead of her. They are 94th and 31st, respectively. While Lucia Stafford has not raced as fast in the 1500m this qualification period, she has had multiple good performances as well as a 2000m run of 5:31.18, last July. That performance is the 25th fastest in history. The criteria for the metric mile include races over the imperial mile (1609m) and the 2000m.
For Debues-Stafford, one or two more outstanding performances will make a very big difference in the ranking toward the Tokyo World Athletics Championships. Getting into the right meet against an A-list field and racing her best tactics should bring her well under four minutes.
